


The silhouette in my nightmares

by Pebblesong7



Series: Bad things happen bingo [4]
Category: Five Nights at Freddy's
Genre: Bad Things Happen Bingo, Child Death, Child Murder, Five Stages of Grief, Grief/Mourning, Hurt No Comfort, Injury, Past Character Death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-05
Updated: 2021-03-05
Packaged: 2021-03-18 15:08:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,754
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29859957
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pebblesong7/pseuds/Pebblesong7
Summary: The older brother of Cassidy returns to the pizzeria
Series: Bad things happen bingo [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2184204
Kudos: 4





	The silhouette in my nightmares

**Author's Note:**

> Warning: this story is primarily focused on grief, obviously the plot of FNAF is based around child murder so if there is a risk of this causing distress it would be better to avoid this story.

The air was stale and damp, perforating the dark corners of the dilapidated building. Thin streaks of light broke through the boarded windows, the faint mottled light was a strong contrast against the creaky wooden floors, covered with stains that Henry didn’t dare think about. He shouldn’t have come here. 

Henry was a clever young man, standing at 5’11’’ with hair as dark as the night sky and deep brown eyes. His mum and dad used to ruffle his hair as they told every stranger about his grades. Back then, they would say the same thing about Cassidy. Now they could barely look at him, his report cards were given a rudimentary once over, a quick pat on the back, and then it was back to normal. Henry didn’t like normal anymore. 

His 17th birthday had only just passed, a full two years since It had happened. Cassidy would have been 11 by now. He wondered what she would have looked like, she had the same night black hair and dark brown eyes, with that adorable smile that made you believe she could do no wrong. There were points when Henry was so annoyed at his little sister for whatever petty reason that he would have been glad to slam his bedroom door in her face. Now he would do anything to see that smile again. 

The young man crept forward, angling his torch to try and see as much of the pizzeria as he could. The carousel was still there. Under a thin layer of dust, he thought he could make out the old horse, the one with the golden mane that Cass liked. Some of the paint was chipped, and the painted black eyes were dark voids. When he was younger it seemed so much more alive. 

A skittering noise made him jump, panting slightly as he frantically searched for the source. When his torch landed on a mouse, he released the tension he didn’t even know he was holding. When he reached one of the tables, he was surprised to see that it had been tidied up since the party. Henry had imagined that the place would have been completely frozen in time. He felt like he had been. 

“Henry, look what I made!” Cassie’s face was alight with joy, her drawing held at the end of her outstretched arms. Her toy dog was tucked awkwardly under her arm, its matted blue fur had faded a little with time, but it’s collar was still in place reading “Masie”. Henry nodded approvingly.  
“Wow Cass that's an amazing-” he paused, because he truly couldn’t tell what it was, “-dog?” Cassie beamed, thank goodness. The drawing was barely more than a splatter of blue and green crayons, but Henry liked to think that some of his lessons had brushed off (hehe) on her. If you squinted you could see some shading. 

Henry’s heart clenched tightly at the memory, and he struggled to draw breath for a moment. Despite how much time had passed, he realised his eyes were welling with tears. Cassie could have done so much, but that monster-. He shook his head, trying to displace the thoughts. It was better to not think of that. 

He made his way around tables, until he was directly facing the stage. It was smaller than he remembered. Henry grimaced when he saw something buglike crawl across at, and he let out a shriek when something brushed against his ankle. His heart was pounding in his chest, but when he looked, he couldn’t see anything nearby. Must have been a mouse or something. For a moment longer he remained by the stage. 

Laughter and screams of delighted children filled the room as the bright lights landed on Freddy, the animatronic moving jerkily as he waved to the audience. Music was blaring, slightly tinny but nobody seemed to mind, from the cheap speakers at the side of the stage. Cassie was holding his hand tightly, jumping up and down with excitement. Her other hand was grasped firmly around Masie as she pumped it in the air. Henry tried to match her excitement, after all it was her 7th birthday party, but it wasn’t so easy. He didn’t see the appeal but his sister adored Fazbear’s, they simply had to come every birthday. The animatronics began to sing. 

Henry pushed onward. It was his first time back here since the incident, his parents had no idea otherwise they would probably ground him for months. For a long time he had avoided the restaurant, most people had, but he heard that they were planning on knocking it down soon. Good riddance. 

The young man couldn’t say exactly why he was here. Before everything had happened, he had been planning on becoming a doctor and would spend all his free time playing the latest arcade games with his friends from school. That had all fallen apart since. Nothing seemed to matter anymore, he got good grades sure, but it was just going through the motions by now. His therapist had said he was depressed, and he supposed they would know. All his friends had tried, but he hadn't been that person anymore. 

Maybe it was that this place, what had happened here, had taken so much from him. This had been the last place he had been happy. Before that man-. No, now wasn’t the time, he needed to find something, anything, that would tell him what happened to Cass. 

They never found a body, they didn’t even get to know if it was quick. 

As he rounded the corner, his torchlight caught the edge of something that was almost shiny. It was tucked between the floorboards, only a small piece poking out. Kneeling down, Henry tugged on the card until it came free. Shining the light on it he was able to read what it said. 

Carlton Burke  
Hurricane Public Library

There was a picture of a young boy with ginger hair next to the words. Henry thought he might have recognised him. The name was unfamiliar, which was a relief. After it happened, he had obsessed over every newspaper and memorised the names of all the missing children, brushing over Cassidy Marsh as if it would bring her home. His parents had been angry at first, but eventually they gave up. 

The house was silent. So quiet that if you didn’t know better you would have thought it was vacant. Henry held the latest newspaper with trembling hands, tears blotting the ink. His mum had stopped crying a few minutes ago, she was probably asleep again, she always was these days. Dad, when he wasn’t at work, would sometimes join her, other times he would go out for a walk, slamming the door as he went. Henry knew he was going to cry in the garage, but he knew better than to say anything. 

The bold headline seemed to garish and exciting for the news. 

RESTAURANT OR HORROR SHOW? SIX CHILDREN STILL MISSING AFTER VICIOUS ATTACK

He slammed the paper down on his desk, breaking down into sobs as one of the dirty plates on his desk fell to the carpet. He could almost hear Cassie opening the door and wrapping her tiny arms around his waist, whispering comforting words like she would whenever he was upset. There was nobody to hold him now, so he dropped to the ground. Eventually his weeping subsided, leaving him exhausted. He couldn't even muster the energy to crawl into bed, instead choosing to lie down on the floor and stare at the door. The house went back to silence. 

At first, he hadn't been able to believe what had happened. He had shoved against the police officers arms, straining to get back inside the building because his sister was still in there. They held him back until his parents found him, and they pulled him into an uneasy hug, relieved to see that at least one of their beloved children was ok. Henry didn’t think that he would ever be ok again. 

Once the denial had drained away, along came the anger. Once upon a time Henry was the most optimistic person in school. Back then there was nothing he couldn’t do, now he couldn’t even get up in the morning. His happiest memories had been tainted, coloured in black ink, that beast had taken-. No. Not yet. 

He had been angry at everyone, at his parents, the monster, even Cassidy. Even, if he had to admit it, himself. It didn’t really matter anymore. His parents blamed him, even if they didn’t directly say it he knew they did. He had been the one who was meant to take care of her. 

He made his way further down the corridor. A wretched creaking came to his attention, and Henry could have sworn that there was a golden hand vanishing behind the waving kitchen door. He froze, listening intently, heart thumping like a caught rabbit and a slight shiver starting to tease his fingers. There was nothing, except for a faint dripping from somewhere else in the building. Forcing himself forward, he tentatively reached for the door and slowly pushed it open. 

The kitchen had been off limits when he was here last, but he could almost imagine it was still running. The huge metal pizza oven still had some metal plates enclosed in its grasp. As Henry investigated further, he realised that there were some remnants of old food he couldn’t even name. It was almost entirely decayed, remnants of the foul odor assaulting Henry’s nose, so he quickly moved away. 

Despite being out of sight of children, a few of the walls were decorated by the odd drawing. Most of them were robots, others children with pizza’s. Henry found himself wondering who had been considered important enough to have their drawings in here. 

A clatter made him jump, followed by a frightening crash. Henry almost fled, but terror seemed to have eaten his ability to move. The edge of a counter pressed into his lower spine, and he reached blindly for something he could use as a weapon. The light of the torch landed on scattered heating plates on the floor. Some of them were still twitching from the landing. Henry searched the darkness but there was nothing there. 

Tears almost fell. Before now, he hadn't believed that anything could get through the cloud of darkness that had claimed his life, but as the adrenaline drained out of him, leaving him cold and shaky, he realised he was scared. 

There was no such thing as ghosts.

Right?

Uneasy, he left the kitchen and continued down the corridor. Up ahead he could see the edges of the red curtains that led to pirates cove. Henry flinched at the sight of yellow, but he calmed when he saw it was just a toy. Distracted, he absentmindedly picked it up and turned to doll between his hands. He recognized the bib, colourfully dotted with the words “let's eat”, and the little silver microphone. The face, however, was different. The eyes were normal but the beak was gone, leaving a gaping hole in his memory of the character. Creeped out he dropped the doll. 

The curtains were heavier than he expected them to be. The red was faded slightly, small tears lining the material, and stains in the shape of tiny fingers dappled the edges. 

“Come on Henry we need to go see foxy!” Henry rolled his eyes. Cassie was giving him a pleading look, blue fur held to her chest.  
“Later Cassie, I want to play with my friends.” Cassie pouted, threatening to let out a cry. Henry stammered quickly, unwilling to deal with another temper tantrum today. “Look, why don’t you go on ahead eh? I’ll be with you in a sec. I just need to let Alex know where I'm going.” Cassie seemed happy with this, giving a grin and skipping off into the crowd. 

Before they had left, their parents had made Henry promise that he wouldn’t let Cass out of his sight, but he would only have his back turned for a second. He bid a quick farewell to his irritated friends before he followed after Cass.

Children bustled around in front of him, and he had to pick his way through the crowd. He couldn’t see the bobbing black hair but he knew she would be just up ahead. Dexterously dodging a pool of an unknown substance, he managed to get to the corridor. 

A cold feeling that he couldn't describe washed over him. He didn’t know what it was or where it came from, but he knew that something wasn’t right.  
“Cassie?” His voice was barely audible over the music. “Cassie where are you?” The hallway remained quiet. 

When Henry reached the pirates cove, there was nobody there. The fox was moving spasmodically, eyepatch clattering against its metal face plates. Its arms were flailing, and its teeth were chattering. If he didn’t know better, Henry would say it looked almost scared.  
“CASSIE!” The little girl was nowhere in sight. A sick feeling rose in the back of his throat, and he struggled to speak past the lump. “Cassie come on, we can play later.” 

Still nobody responded. Where could she have gone, he was only away for a few moments? Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a flash of movement. Desperately hoping it was Cassie he spun on a dime, only catching a glimpse of a cold, flat eye as it watched him from behind the storage room door. A golden hand slipped from behind the door like a snake. Henry realised he was shaking. The hand contorted, twisting until he was facing palm up. The forefinger made a beckoning motion. 

A dreadful scream interrupted the music and Henry started, looking back toward the party room as the panic began to rise. When he turned back, the creature was gone. 

Henry forced the memories away. He couldn’t do anything about that now. At the time, he had been so frozen with fear, so stilled by horror that he hadn't been able to bring himself to move until a stranger had dragged him away. He couldn’t say exactly what he had felt, he doubted he would ever feel it again, but at that moment he was sure that he had seen the devil. 

Maybe if he had been able to move he would have been able to save her. To save them. 

Now the door to the storage room was closed. Wooden slats hid the door, held in place by old nails and ragged splinters. Henry traced a finger over the wood, before he pushed his fingers underneath the damp wood. 

With a single, forceful yank, the plank came away. A few splinters poked into the skin on his hand, but Henry couldn’t bring himself to care. The urge pushing him to do this was almost animalistic, desperate and cloying. Finally, the door was clear. 

Henry was more frightened than he had been the entire time he was here. He didn’t know what he was going to find. Logically, he knew that there would be nothing aside from the metal skeletons of some old mechanics, that's all that the police had been able to find. Something in him, however, told him that he would find something much worse. 

He didn’t realise he had clenched his fist, fingernails leaving indents on his palm. Unravelling his fingers he reached for the door handle. 

To his surprise, it wasn’t locked like he anticipated. It seemed unusual given the extents they had gone to to keep people out. The door opened silently. 

The room was just as he expected. Bits and pieces of machinery that Henry couldn’t name were placed haphazardly on the shelves. A few cloth covered cavities were slumped over, as though they had been pushed against the walls. None of that was interesting though, what was was a small shape in the middle of the room. 

It lay on the floor, limp and ragdoll like. As Henry moved forward he was able to start to see features of it. The thing had four legs, a wispy tail, faded blue fur rubbed away in places from years of love. Henry wondered if he was going to throw up. He released a breath he didn’t realise he was holding when he used a single finger to bring the collar into the light.

MASIE

Henry was so still for a moment that from the outside it must have looked like he turned into glass. Then the despairing sobs broke out, and he couldn’t hold himself up anymore. Memories of Cassie with that stupid doll flooded his mind, and the growing agony ripped out of him with every whimper. Cassie was never apart from Masie, not unless she had no other choice. 

He grasped at the toy, pulling it close to his chest as he collapsed to the floor. He curled up around the toy, alternating between gasping for air and whimpering. When the emotions became too much he let out a scream of anguish. 

The toy had never been found after Cassie disappeared. They didn’t get a body and they didn’t even get that stupid toy back. Henry had always held a glimmer of hope that just maybe Cassie was alive somewhere, they couldn’t find her because there was nothing to find. But deep down he knew that wasn’t true. Just the hopeless dreams of a kid. 

“I’m sorry but we’ve looked everywhere, there’s no sign of your daughter.” Henry could only watch, as though he were looking at the policeman through a screen. Their…. His parents were despondent, barely holding themselves together at the door. Henry clutched the small model giraffe that he stole from Cassie’s room tighter, as if it would somehow bring her back home. His mother was weeping again, and his father just stared blankly at the officer with glassy eyes, mouth twisted into a frown. He never frowned when Cassie was here. 

When the door was closed, the house was back to being frozen in motion. They didn’t dare move or change anything, in case Cassie was going to come through that door at any second and tell them off for tidying up. Her finger paintings from the day before she was lost were scattered across the kitchen table. The paint itself was dried and stuck to the plate in clumps. It would be impossible to get off, Henry thought faintly. 

His mother was looking at him.  
“Are you sure you didn’t see anything? You were with her, you must have seen something.” Her voice was raspy from lack of use and her endless tears. Henry just shook his head.  
“I told you, I saw one of the robots but nothing else.” For a moment his mother looked angry, before she just shook her head.  
“I need to go lie down.” His father watched after her sadly.  
“I’m not lying dad I swear” His dad cut him off.  
“I know kid, we know.” 

They never found anything in the storage rooms back then. It was that memory that chilled Henry enough to make him sit back up, emotionally drained and eyes sore from crying. If there was nothing in here back then, then who put Masie here?

Suddenly cold, he looked around the storage room again. The torchlight gleamed off the eyes of some of the empty heads, it flashed faintly when it crossed over the metal endoskeletons. Every fibre in his body was awake and alert. A metallic clanging seemed to be echoing within the walls, and when he listened closer he thought he could hear faint whispers. 

Skin prickling, Henry kept hold of the toy as he stood up, finding odd comfort in its rough fur. Whatever had happened, whatever that monster had done, it had happened in this room. The eerie feeling that he felt when he realised Cassie was gone was there, nestled deeply in his soul and raising the hairs on his neck. Another clang made him jolt, and too tired to resist, he felt tears trickle down his cheeks. He was scared. He wondered if that's what Cassie felt, in her final moments. 

Adrenaline surged through him at another clang, this time closer to the door, and he started to run. He had scarcely taken a step out when he saw that the curtain to pirates cove was now open. His blood ran cold. Turning the opposite way to the way he came, he broke out into a fast jog. It was dark and with all the clutter he didn’t want to risk falling and getting hurt. 

Something grabbed at his shirt, and he let out a screech of terror. He didn’t even look at what had grabbed him, just threw himself forward. His shirt made a dreadful ripping noise but he was free. His lungs ached and his whole body felt like it was running on liquid ice. Turning the corner on another corridor, he fled down it. He could see the edges of one of the party tables, and in a childish sense he believed that if he could reach it he would be safe. Footsteps were coming after him now, some slow, some faster. 

Chest heaving, he reached the party hall. He caught a glimpse of the stage out of the corner of his eye and something was moving on it. The primal instinct that told him to run, to run and never stop running, didn’t allow him the time to get a better look. 

A screaming noise paired with the sharp agony of something digging into his leg, hooking into his leg. He realised that it was not him making the noise. Any pain was numbed by the sheer terror as he saw the velvety red fur attached to the metal hook piercing his skin. On instinct he tried to rip his leg away but the creature pulled back. Changing tactic, he shoved his leg toward the beast. His gambit worked, allowing him to get free as the hook came out. 

Finally the door was in sight, and he burst through it without a second to spare, and just like that the terror was gone. Still shaking and panting from exhaustion, Henry turned back to look into the building. Nothing but darkness looked back, and darkness had glowing white eyes. A golden hand slithered into the light, its movements smooth and sure. 

It waved.


End file.
